Dr. J.’s Short Shot No. 15: Gerald Ford and Bipartisanship. Gerald Ford and Bipartisanship?!?

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

As the Gerald Ford funeral and related eulogies proceed today we hear over and over again about how bipartisan Gerald Ford was. Commentators tell us that us the country is just fed up with the present partisanship of Washington, and yearn for the good old Gerald Ford days. Further most make a point of making the point that the big responsibility the Congressional Democrats now have is to restore those “feelings of camaraderie, cooperation, and good humor” that characterized the era of Gerald Ford. No sympathy for the item at the top of this morning’s BuzzFlash “Top Five Headlines:” “As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking. Bully for the Dems!”

The way most commentators put it, those feelings of bipartisanship just sort of went away on their own, or if they did not go on their own, then the Democrats were equally responsible for the sea change and now, certainly have all the responsibility for reversing that destructive direction. (I guess those commentators never heard of Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, Tom Delay, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, O’RHannibaugh, and the Fox “News” Channel.) Ah for the era of Gerald Ford, they yearn.

So what about the era of Gerald Ford? The first time I can recall hearing the name was in association with the “Impeach Earl Warren” movement of the 1950s and 60s. It had been started by the John Birch Society on the heels of Brown v. Board of Education and the further series of pro-civil rights and liberties decisions that came down from the Warren Court during that time. The movement was especially popular in the South, but there was at least one Northern Congressman, I recall (and do correct me, dear readers, if I am wrong about this) who put his name to it as well.

Gerald Ford was the minority leader of a House of Representatives that stood by Nixon until the bitter end, when only a few acolytes outside of the Congress, like William Safire and Pat Buchanan, were still doing so. It was claimed by Howard Fineman of Newsweek on Imus in the Morning, this morning, that there was no deal for a pardon before Nixon resigned. But Fineman also told us that if there had been no pardon, after his resignation Nixon would not have copped a plea like his first Vice-President, the delightful Spiro Agnew, did. No, he would have fought the case until the bitter end. But if he were prepared to do that anyway, why resign? Why not stay on and just fight impeachment in the Congress, where he would have stood a much better chance of getting off than in a court of law. So there may well have been a deal after all. Ford the bipartisan. Ford the bipartisan.

In a little more than two years in office, good old bipartisan Gerry issued 68 vetoes of Democratic legislation. Even though the country was totally against it, and Nixon himself had finally begun the pullout from Vietnam, Ford was ready to re-escalate, stopped only by a Democratic Congress. (And who says the history does not repeat itself?) Finally, Ford had appointed as his own Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller, who was a truly bipartisan Republican in the (FDR’s Sec. Of War) Henry L. Stimson, Earl Warren, Jacob Javits mold. Because he thought that he needed to protect his Right flank, in 1976 good old bipartisan Gerry dropped Rockefeller and chose instead Sen. Robert Dole, known even then as one of the most sharp-toothed-and-clawed Republicans in Congress. Having come from 33 points down against the fine man but totally ineffective campaigner Jimmy Carter, Ford lost by only a whisker. He said later that dropping Rockefeller probably cost him the Presidency. Ford did seem to become a bit truly bipartisan when it no longer mattered. But when it did, as we say in New York City, fuggebaboutit!

Original published on BuzzFlash on Tue, 01/02/2007 – 1:41pm. http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/jonas/040

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) a weekly Contributing Author for The Political Junkies (www.thepoliticaljunkies.net), Contributing Editor for The Moving Planet Blog (http://www.planetarymovement.org/), and a Columnist for BuzzFlash (http://www.buzzflash.com/).